


Whumptober 2020 - 04 - Good Samaritan

by Celticgal1041



Series: Whumptober 2020 [4]
Category: Magnum P.I. (TV 2018)
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Whump, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:28:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26820655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celticgal1041/pseuds/Celticgal1041
Summary: “God,” Thomas groaned as the unbearable weight above him pressed down, his thigh and arm muscles straining, while every inch of his back felt battered and bruised.
Series: Whumptober 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949548
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Whumptober 2020 - 04 - Good Samaritan

For probably the hundredth time, Magnum wished his and TC’s positions were reversed as he grunted in a combination of effort and pain. No, he corrected himself, what he really wished for was that both he and his friend had stayed home today, instead of being boy scouts and chasing down a young purse snatcher.

They’d been in an industrial section of the city, TC needing to pick up a replacement part for his helicopter and Magnum tagging along because he had nothing better to do. It had been a slow week workwise and hanging out with his friends got him out of Higgins’ way after she’d announced in no uncertain terms that he was getting underfoot. He took that as his cue to become scarce for a few days while the majordomo dealt with some pressing estate affairs.

Having procured the needed part, they’d been walking back to TC’s van when the startled cry of a young woman had drawn their attention. It was immediately obvious what had happened, and Magnum had instantly taken off after the thief, Calvin a few seconds behind after realizing he couldn’t give chase with the helicopter part in his hands and reluctantly letting it drop to the ground.

Thankfully, the chase didn’t last long, with their target ducking through a barely hanging door into a building that had most definitely seen better days. TC had quickly closed the gap between himself and the fleetfooted P.I. and saw the man disappear through the doorway just seconds before he reached it himself.

He’d softly called for his friend, unable to spot him in the gloomy interior. He had been met with silence, save for the shifting and creaking of ancient flooring and beams. Shaking off the trepidation that had settled with his first step inside, TC had forced himself to continue, finally catching a glimpse of Magnum as the man ran through an errant beam of sunlight.

TC gave chase once again, only to come to a stumbling halt next to his friend at the edge of section of broken flooring. “Where’d he go?” TC asked, looking around as he tried to spot the thief.

Magnum waved in the general direction of the other side of the room, a look of disgust clear on his face. “Don’t know how but he knew a way around this….this…..pit,” he finally said, his gaze firmly fixed on the wide, impassable section of flooring.

TC shrugged, happy to have a reason to vacate the building. “Maybe we’ll spot him outside,” he suggested, already turning to walk back the way they’d come.

“Nah, he’s long gone,” Thomas said, his tone tinged with frustration and defeat.

“Come on, then,” Calvin replied, eager to get back to where their chase had begun and to collect his newly purchased helicopter part.

“Yeah,” Magnum answered, sounding distracted, as he carefully edged closer to the edge of the hole as if to check its depth.

“Are you crazy?” TC exclaimed, closing the distance between them so he could pull his friend back from the edge.

The rotted floorboards creaked menacingly with Calvin’s extra weight, and the two men exchanged concerned looks. Offering TC a nod, they shifted their weight in preparation to step back, but the wood beneath their feet had had enough, splintering and falling away before they could move.

Gravity captured their bodies at once and they found themselves falling helplessly for a second or two, before experiencing an abrupt stop. If that had been the end to their adventure, everything might have turned out alright, since both men found themselves virtually uninjured from the short drop. They’d even begun to laugh at their unexpected good fortune, until the top two floors of the building decided to follow them down.

Now, they were well and truly stuck, Magnum forced to a position on his hands and knees as he struggled to keep the debris that had fallen off his unconscious friend.

“Come on, TC,” Thomas panted out, wishing for a free hand to wipe the dust and sweat from his eyes. Blinking rapidly to clear his vision, he went on. “Now would be a great time for you to wake up, big guy.”

Like most unstable structures, the building’s collapse had happened in waves, and Calvin had been knocked out in the first one. Before Magnum could awaken the man and move them both to a potentially safer location, the building had shuddered again, unleashing a second, heavier torrent of plywood, ceiling tiles, support beams, and who knows what else, most of which felt like it had landed on the detective’s back.

“God,” Thomas groaned as the unbearable weight above him pressed down, his thigh and arm muscles straining, while every inch of his back felt battered and bruised. Breathing hard, he tried again, “I could really use your help now, brother,” he wheezed, feeling the tremble of his overtaxed muscles, and recognizing he wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer.

Initially, he’d tried shifting, but had stopped immediately when it became evident that freeing himself would simply dump everything on his insensate friend. Given TC’s position, the odds were high that the man’s chest and face would be buried under enough rubble that he’d suffocate before Thomas could dig him out. There was no way Magnum would let that happen, and he’d spent the last God knows how long struggling to keep the debris above him from burying his friend.

Magnum watched as another bead of sweat dripped from the end of his nose to land on Calvin’s unmoving hand. It, like everything else around them, was covered in a fine layer of dust, except for the spot where Thomas’ perspiration had struck. He shook himself from his fugue when he realized he’d been staring at the spot for far too long, returning instead to his efforts to wake the unconscious man.

“Come on, TC, stop being lazy already,” he rasped, the strain evident in his voice as even breathing became more of a chore than before. Magnum lifted his head slightly from its downward facing position, confirming that Calvin’s eyes were still closed. “Damnit!” he swore as his back muscles spasmed painfully at having been in the same position for far too long.

Knowing his time was running out, Thomas slowly shifted his weight, pausing momentarily when his slight movement prompted more debris to fall into their space. The fresh dust it kicked up had the former SEAL coughing, each spasm of his lungs pulling painfully on exhausted muscles. When he was finally able to catch his breath, he swallowed thickly, his mouth and throat horribly dry from the grime he’d inhaled. “Gonna drink a bucket of water when we get out of here,” he croaked to TC, glancing at his friend’s face once more to see if there’d been any change in the man’s condition.

He began to shift his weight again, not stopping until he was holding himself up with both arms and one leg. Cautiously, he pushed the knee of his free leg forward to nudge TC in the side. His first movement didn’t produce much other than to gently rock the large man in place, so Magnum tried again, but harder this time. His second attempt had TC slightly rolling his head, and the positive result had the P.I. repeating the action.

“TC, wake up, brother,” he pleaded, pushing his knee once more into the man’s arm and ribs. He was rewarded with a groan and then by the flutter of heavy eyelids, which had Magnum grinning like an idiot despite their desperate situation.

“That’s it, big guy,” Thomas coaxed his friend, finally rewarded by two confused brown eyes staring up at him.

“Wha’?” Calvin coughed out, groaning as soon as the short jag had passed.

“You with me, TC?” Magnum gritted out, praying that his friend would be aware enough soon to try moving. “We’re kind of in some serious trouble here.”

“Hmm,” Calvin hummed, for the first time processing their positions and the debris surrounding them. “Oh, Hell, no,” he replied as he became more aware, closing his eyes for a moment and shaking his head. “Tell me you did not lead us into a collapsed building.”

“Technically, I didn’t” Thomas replied, his voice thin with exertion. “That part kind of happened after we got inside.” His right arm threatened to buckle, and he grunted as he forced it to straighten once more, fresh sweat beading on his forehead with the strain.

“TC, can you move?” he asked breathlessly.

Opening his eyes again, Calvin looked up at his friend. “Wouldn’t it be better if we waited for someone to rescue us?” He lifted one hand from where it lay on his chest, motioning to the rubble that surrounded them. “No telling how unstable this stuff is, and one wrong move could bring it all down on us.”

“Mm hmm,” Magnum replied as he allowed his head to drop, the act of speaking almost becoming too much for him.

The odd response had TC taking a second look, doing his best to peer around his friend’s body, which seemed to be held in an odd position. “Are you keeping stuff from collapsing on us?”

“Yeah,” Thomas gasped, grateful that his friend had comprehended their situation.

“And it’s gonna all fall down on me if you move?” Calvin continued, although he was already confident of the answer he would receive. Magnum gave a shaky nod, his focus turning inwards as he put every bit of his remaining strength into maintaining his position.

“Holy Hell!” TC exclaimed as he began to scrabble backwards, attempting to pull himself free from the debris covering his legs so he could move out from underneath the struggling P.I. “Hold on just a few seconds more,” he ordered as he felt the rubble on his lower body shift and slide off, allowing him to push himself backwards with his legs.

“I’m almost clear,” he said, watching the tremble in his friend’s arms and legs, and seeing how Magnum’s back had begun to bow.

“Hurry,” Thomas gasped, certain his muscles would fail him at any second.

“I’m good,” TC replied as he pulled himself to a seated position in the small open space that surrounded them.

With a supreme effort, Magnum lifted his head, confirming his friend’s words. “Thank God,” he breathed out as his limbs collapsed under the strain, the debris he’d been holding back now forcing him to the ground under its weight.

“Thomas!” Calvin shouted as his friend’s body disappeared from view.

A new cloud of dust filled the air as the wreckage of the building settled around them. As hard as he tried, TC couldn’t avoid breathing some of it in, and he found himself helplessly coughing and gasping for air for nearly a minute as he tried to clear his clogged lungs.

As soon as he was able to draw a proper breath, TC threw himself forward, his hands scrabbling through the debris to uncover Magnum’s upper body and face. “Come on, come on,” he repeated to himself, not even aware of his muttering as he dug to find his friend. Ignoring the splinters and small cuts he was accumulating on his unprotected hands, TC continued to feverishly move the rubble away.

When he’d revealed a portion of Magnum’s lower face, he stopped, unable to continue as he was gripped by panic at the thought that his friend might already be dead. Several long seconds passed before he was able to force himself to move, this time carefully clearing space around Thomas’ neck so he could check for a pulse.

“Come on,” he repeated again, this time impatiently waiting to feel the familiar thrum of a heartbeat beneath his grimy fingers. “Oh, thank God,” he breathed out as soon as he felt Magnum’s pulse against his fingertips.

TC continued to move the rubble away from his friend’s face, revealing lax features that were much paler than normal, only partially caused by the drywall dust that clung to his damp skin. “You better be alright, TM,” Calvin stated as he shifted his attention to the debris covering the other man’s back.

As he attempted to lift a larger piece of four by four, he was startled by a new sound and a powerful beam of light from above, which had him releasing the heavy wooden beam he’d just begun to lift. “Hey, down there, are you alright?”

TC sat back onto his heels, lifting a hand to partially cover his eyes as he squinted upwards against the bright light. “Yeah,” he croaked out, pausing to cough in an effort to clear his throat. “We’re down here.”

“Just hang tight,” the voice from above replied. “We’ll have you out of there shortly.”

“Not going anywhere,” Calvin answered, releasing a sigh of relief that help had arrived. “You hear that, buddy?” he asked Magnum. “We’ll be out of here soon. You just make sure you hang on so I can kick your butt later for that stunt you pulled.” While he was grateful that Thomas had saved him from being crushed, he was less than impressed that the P.I. had held on so long to the point where he’d had no strength left to save himself from the same fate. 

He could hear the sound of men and equipment moving above and assumed that meant the disembodied voice from earlier had been true to his word. “Just a little while longer,” he muttered absently, his hand reaching for Magnum’s and squeezing it tight.

The operation still took longer than TC liked, with the rescue crew having to brace several unstable sections of the building around them, but finally they were both above ground and being tended by the paramedics on scene.

“Hey,” Calvin snagged the arm of one of the emergency responders as the man walked by. He was currently on a gurney outside one of the ambulances on site and was almost crazy with worry after having been separated from his injured friend. “Can you tell me how the guy I was with is doing?”

The man glanced towards the other ambulance, which was several feet away. “Hey, Pete, how’s your patient doing? His friend here wants an update.”

“He’ll be fine,” Pete called back. “Hasn’t come around yet, but his vitals are good. We’ll be transporting him to hospital in a few minutes.”

The policeman turned back to TC. “You caught that?”

“Yeah, thanks man,” Calvin confirmed. “One more thing – how did you guys find us so fast?”

The officer grinned as he pointed to a young woman standing outside of the cordoned off area. “She called us. Said someone took her purse and a couple of good Samaritans went after the thief. She decided to follow you and arrived just in time to see the building start falling apart. Since you hadn’t come out yet, she assumed you were still inside and called 911.”

“Huh,” TC remarked, surprised by the answer he’d been given. The policeman just grinned as he turned and walked away.

* * *

“So, you’re saying the woman we tried to help ended up helping us instead?” Magnum asked, just having heard the full story from TC after waking up in the hospital.

“Yup,” Calvin replied from the chair next to Thomas’ bed. It had been several hours since they’d arrived and been treated, but Magnum had had to undergo minor surgery to have his back and hands debrided. TC had undergone a similar procedure using a local anesthetic applied to his hands, which he’d injured while trying to uncover his friend. He’d been released shortly afterwards with care instructions and a bag of clean gauze and antibiotics.

Rick and Higgins had joined them in Magnum’s hospital room, even though the patient was somewhat dazed from a combination of pain meds, anti-inflammatories for his overtaxed muscles, and a moderate concussion. They, too, were hearing the details of the men’s adventure for the first time, both shocked at how much trouble the men managed to find in such a short amount of time.

“Well, you know what they say,” Higgins began when TC had finished his story. “Keep putting out good; it will come back to you tenfold in unexpected ways.”

Rick snorted at the goofy grin that had appeared on Magnum’s face at Juliet’s words. “I think this is more a case of no good deed goes unpunished.”

A soft round of chuckles met Wright’s statement, but it was Thomas who apparently wanted to have the last word. “No, you’re both wrong,” he said. “Good deeds equal good karma.” And no one could dispute that today, at least, he was absolutely correct.

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to AZGirl for proofing; all remaining mistakes are mine.
> 
> This story was based on the day 4 prompt: Running out of time: caged / buried alive / collapsed building
> 
> Thanks for reading and I'd love to hear your thoughts if you're so inclined!


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